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Therapeutic symbiosis

Also known as Phase of therapeutic symbiosisTherapeutic symbiotic relatedness

Harold Searles's name for a phase in the psychotherapy of schizophrenic and other deeply disturbed patients in which patient and therapist become bound in a mutual, deeply regressed dependency, so that for a time it is not possible to say which feelings belong to whom. In the sequence of phases he described, treatment moves from the patient's early pathological symbiosis, through an out-of-contact or autistic phase, into therapeutic symbiosis, and from there to individuation. Searles saw this phase as the core of the deepest therapeutic work. He thought both participants resist it, and that in it each contributes to the other's growth.

Introduced by: Harold Searles
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introduced by

Harold Searles Searles described therapeutic symbiosis as a phase of mutual, deeply regressed dependency between patient and therapist. It comes after the patient's early pathological symbiosis and an out-of-contact phase, and before individuation. He placed it at the heart of the deepest therapeutic work.